Author Archives: Claire

About Claire

I’m a writer, declutterer, and lover of fabric, furniture and books (oh, and my laptop!) I especially like to write about decluttering and debt-free living.

Most People Don’t Need a Big House

By Claire Posted in downsizing, Simpler Living, Small-House Living Tagged , , , , ,

Over at getrichslowly.org, they’re discussing how people who live in big houses only use a small percentage of their total square footage when it comes to daily living. That wasn’t true of us.

Our big house had five bedrooms and an office. We ran two businesses from home, and I homeschooled our children. For many years, every single room of our house was used every day. I used to say that we got more mileage out of our mortgage payment than anyone else we knew.

But that was then. The kids are in their 20s and 30s now and on their own; we downsized to a smaller house several years ago. There are three of us living in 1000 square feet, and we’re quite comfortable. However, had we stayed in our old house, we’d be rattling around with more space than we’d know what to do with. I can easily imagine that, like the people mentioned in the link above, we’d be spending most of our time in just a few rooms of the house.

Thinking about how you use the rooms in your house is a really valuable exercise. Unless you have more money than you know what to do with, you might want to consider whether your current house is really larger than you need it to be. A smaller house means lower costs; lower costs equals more freedom because you don’t have to earn so much money to support yourself, leaving you more time to do the things you really want to do.

I suspect that for many people, the big house ties them to their jobs. If they love their jobs, that’s fine. But many people don’t love their jobs. Living in a smaller house might free them to work somewhere that pays less but offers work that they love.

Some people love the status that a big house confers on them. If status is your goal, then you probably don’t care whether you use many rooms in your house or not. You’re more concerned about what other people think.

I certainly enjoyed having all the space we had in our big house (the master bath was bigger than the master bedroom in our current small house). But that house took a long time to clean, cost us a fortune in property taxes, and maintaining it would probably wear us out now, since we’re a little older (ahem) than we were when we built it 30 years ago.

I loved that big house, and I miss it. But I love this little house, too. Ultimately, some people actually need and use a big house, as we did, but only for a certain stage of their lives. After that, I think most people will find that living efficiently gives them more freedom.

“I Hope My Kids Don’t Do This to Me!”

By Claire Posted in Clutter, downsizing, Retirement Tagged , , , ,

The estate sale I went to last week was a packed one; it was like a museum of my childhood, complete with thermal coffee mugs with woven-straw sides, and a large wood stereo system on tall legs just like you would have found in most of the houses in the neighborhoods of my childhood, back in the 1960s.

But what was most memorable about this sale was that on two separate occasions I heard women say, “I hope my kids don’t do this to me!” as they looked at the displays of two elderly folks’ personal possessions.

My goodness, do they think their kids will keep their houses (and contents) intact after they go to a nursing home, or after they die? Something will have to be done with their things, and it’s extremely likely that their kids will do this to them; what other choice will they have? Do they expect them to keep all of it? We’re talking about a houseful of stuff: tables covered in bric-a-brac, knick-knacks, plates, glasses, linens, tools, you name it.

I wanted to tell these women that there is only one way to be sure your kids don’t do this to you, and that’s to go through it yourself while you’re still alive and kicking. Make the tough decisions now so your kids will never have to put all of your things on display for strangers to pick through someday.

As the late philanthropist Percy Ross used to say, “He who gives while he lives knows where it goes.” Keep only your most favorite and necessary possessions, give the next best items to people you love, and sell or donate the rest. You’ll relieve your kids of a huge burden someday, and you’ll never have to spin in your grave because your home is the site of an estate sale.

(Learn how to give up anything you’re sentimental about in The Sentimental Person’s Guide to Decluttering.)

 

Six Reasons Why a Young Family Might Want a Tiny House

By Claire Posted in Debt-Free, downsizing, Simpler Living, Small-House Living Tagged , , , , , , ,

Many of the commenters on this article wonder why a family would want to live in a tiny house. I can think of several reasons why; they all hinge on the fact that doing so would not be on a whim, but because it makes the most financial sense for a family that’s trying to stay afloat financially in an environment where many jobs are disappearing:

  1. Children need stability. If you have to keep moving to find work, it will be stressful on your children. But if you can take your house with you, as you can with a tiny house, they’ll always be able to sleep in their own beds at night.
  2. Living in a tiny house may be too much togetherness for some, but it beats having one parent with a job living in one state while the rest of the family lives in another. This is an increasingly common scenario and means kids only see one parent on the weekends. But a tiny house can be moved near the parent’s job so that the kids see both parents on a daily basis.
  3. Financially strapped families looking to lower their expenses dramatically (to get in balance with lower incomes) find that their expenses are slashed by moving into a tiny house. No more five-figure property taxes, no more high utility bills, no more expensive home maintenance; it makes a huge difference in your bottom line.
  4. A tiny house can be parked on land owned by relatives or friends; if the family pays a little rent for use of the land, they’ll provide extra income for the landowner. If the family can’t pay rent due to job loss, the landowner can help out the family by letting them live on his/her property until they find work again.
  5. As rent prices go up (an ongoing trend), a family with a declining income must struggle to keep a roof over their heads. But the family that buys a tiny home will never have that problem.
  6. The young couple that wants to start a family but can’t afford a mortgage will find that investing $30,000 in a tiny house (less if they do the work themselves) allows them to get started on raising a family when they want to, instead of waiting who-knows-how-long until they can afford a house.

Some commenters ask why the family doesn’t just buy a used R.V. Yes, used R.V.s can be cheaper, but a well-built tiny house will last far longer than an old R.V. that likely has (or will soon develop) a leaky roof, mildew, or cracked water or waste tanks.

Many of the commenters seem to think that moving to a tiny house is something a family would do for the novelty. But a tiny house is a great alternative for anyone who is struggling with unemployment, underemployment or a dying business. It can dramatically reduce shelter expenses until the breadwinner(s) can get back on their feet again. And it sure beats maxing out your credit cards so the whole family can eat on a regular basis!

What I Buy at Estate Sales

By Claire Posted in Clutter, downsizing, Simpler Living, Small-House Living Tagged , , , ,

As I said last time, if I buy something at an estate sale, I have to get rid of something else when I get home. This “one-in, one-out” policy is the key to staying on top of clutter, once you’ve gone through everything and kept only what you really love or need.

So what kind of things do I buy at estate sales?

First off, I buy linens and towels. Not just any linens and towels, however. What I like are new or almost new items. Many of today’s seniors used to set things aside “for company.” So while their everyday towels and sheets may look like they’ve had many years of use, their “for company” items are like new, and often are new, sometimes with price tags still attached.

Just this weekend at a nearby estate sale, I found a lovely dishtowel with a design that screamed “1960s,” hot pink with roses on it. It was like new. Its quality was so far beyond the dish towels sold in stores today that I couldn’t leave it there, so I bought it for a dollar. Then I pitched an old and faded dish towel when I got home so that there would be room in the drawer for my new find.

The quality of today’s new linens and towels are just not up to the standards of the mid-20th century. Even luxurious plush towels quickly degrade within a year or two of washing and drying. But the old goods just last and last.

Another reason I buy things at estate sales is that I can find things there that I can’t find in the stores anymore. A while back I bought a very sturdy eggbeater. It’s perfect when I need to beat something quickly and don’t want to take the time to dig out my hand mixer. Good luck trying to find one at your local Target!

Finally, the prices at an estate sale can’t be beat. I often find hardcover books for a quarter. I read them, then donate them to the Goodwill or Salvation Army. If you need a plate to put a cake on for your family reunion or church picnic, a 50-cent china plate from an estate sale makes the perfect display, and you won’t be concerned if the plate is accidentally broken, or if someone takes it home by mistake, after the event.

I’ve always felt that going to an estate sale is like going on a treasure hunt: you never know what kind of treasure you’ll see. You just have to have some rules about what you can take home, and follow those rules!